Meh. The bullpen feels headed for a big question mark for the umpteenth straight season.
2022 Phillies Thread
- Thread starter Tom McAndrew
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Meh. The bullpen feels headed for a big question mark for the umpteenth straight season.
He's dead to me.
So is his fastball.
From a Philadelphia Inquirer article by columnist David Murphy (former Phillies beat reporter for the Inquirer):
By my projection, they have four open roster spots: one for a fifth starter, three for a sixth, seventh and eighth reliever. Already under contract are nine regulars plus Bryce Harper’s replacement, four bench players, four starters, five relievers. One of the open roster spots can be projected to go to Bailey Falter or some other in-house pitcher who would slide out of the rotation and into the second open roster spot in the bullpen as a backup to top prospect Andrew Painter if and when he arrives. That leaves one slot that, in my opinion, clearly needs to be filled from outside of the organization.
Simply put, the Phillies shouldn’t feel good about this offseason unless they add one more reliever who has the potential to contribute in high-leverage situations. Right now, the top four options are Seranthony Domínguez, José Alvarado, Strahm, and Connor Brogdon, with Andrew Bellatti profiling more as a middle-innings type.
To some extent, bullpens are always a question mark. If the Fightins can trade for (Braves made a nice trade with Detroit for a reliever), or sign one more bullpen guy, I'll feel pretty good about the pen, at least for heading into spring training.
Bad post season unless they shore up the 6th reliever position. Got it.
My big question is who will be their closer? That’s been their undoing at times over past seasons. Nobody should argue the off-season is a bust over that. Turner alone gets them into B or B-plus territory. He does so much to accelerate run production.
Don’t need a set closer, alvarado and seranthony are good enough to close but they need to add more depth to the pen
Seranthony should be the closer alvarado in the 8th,
Phillies can’t just sit still now, since the Turner signing Steve Cohen has gone scorched earth and I am not so sure he is done. We can’t forget that we finished 14 games behind the Braves and Mets over quite a large sample size and can’t guarantee a couple weeks of getting hot at the right time is what we are able to sustain over a long season. Even head to head the Mets handled the Phillies with ease, even during one of the Phillies hot streaks. They have 2 of the top 18 prospects in baseball according to MLB including the top prospect in baseball in Alvarez who got a little taste the last week of the season. Nobody is even accounting for the impact they make to an already really good team.
However for as much of a problem the Mets will be, Braves right now are kind of just treading water and have lost their closer and aren’t really engaged with their 6+ WAR SS who maybe be the best defensive SS in baseball. Will be interesting to see how the Braves move forward with so many good players off the board now.
1 positive moving forward for Phillies, Braves and Mets is that the new schedule will have them beating up on outsiders much more and each other a lot less. That will be a big deal because those games against each other are wars. In the end the same 6 teams are head and shoulders above the rest in the National League. It is the Dodgers (who also are kind of falling back a little right now), padres (who have gotten better), cardinals (because the rest of the central is a joke) and the 3 NL East teams.
However for as much of a problem the Mets will be, Braves right now are kind of just treading water and have lost their closer and aren’t really engaged with their 6+ WAR SS who maybe be the best defensive SS in baseball. Will be interesting to see how the Braves move forward with so many good players off the board now.
1 positive moving forward for Phillies, Braves and Mets is that the new schedule will have them beating up on outsiders much more and each other a lot less. That will be a big deal because those games against each other are wars. In the end the same 6 teams are head and shoulders above the rest in the National League. It is the Dodgers (who also are kind of falling back a little right now), padres (who have gotten better), cardinals (because the rest of the central is a joke) and the 3 NL East teams.
Quirky map. Three places have the A's as the most viewed team pages - Arkansas, Rhode Island, and D.C. That's an oddball group.
Major NL East activity continues with Braves' big trade
The Mets have the highest payroll on record, the Phillies have spent nearly $400 million and the Braves made a three-team, nine-player trade Monday to add a stud catcher.
www.nbcsports.com
This post is why I deleted Twitter.
It's going to take some time for me to get used to the new schedule format. I guess things should be random (unlike the B1G, I guess), but what are the odds that the returning NL pennant winner opens the season on the road, against an AL team?
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As a Mets fan, this is fun. The top 3 in the NL East will be fun to watch for years to come given the fact that their owners aren't shy to spend a little $. It saddens me to this day that the Wilpons still owned the Mets when Wheeler's contract expired; he was one Steve Cohen would have resigned, or at least try to.
Correa to the Mets
Correa to the Mets
I don't know about this, as he's a little bit "over the hill!" Worth a look I guess. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2022/12/phillies-to-sign-craig-kimbrel.html
I was wondering about him when they showed biggest free agent names remaining. Look at it this way. He is signed for the same money that’s Robertson got from the Mets. I thought Robertson would be back in Philly so I can’t say that this upsets me. I think it’s worth a look but I actually thought that they would keep the money until the trade deadline and then see if they needed a starter or more bullpen help.
The money is all relative. There’s no hard cap and the Mets are about to pay $100 million in luxury tax. When that’s your competition, you don’t sweat $10 million.
The Phillies don’t care since they have pushed all the chips in to the middle of the table. What I’m saying is that I thought they might wait and then try to pick up a quality guy from a team that has fallen out. I guess that is still possible since the money doesn’t seem to matter and they still probably spend at the trade deadline. You have to love it if you’re a player. The suits saw what that place was like in Oct/Nov, the cash registers are still ringing.
This will not go over well with my wife who never watched baseball until the time frame of the Baby Braves. She's still pissed they let him walk. He's well past his prime but was a pleasure to watch as a Braves fan.
A couple interesting predictions.
Here is hoping that Jimmy gets around to writing that book about the great Providence hoops team of Ernie D. & Marvin Barnes that he always wanted to do. Those nightly gatherings in Clearwater over many years are cherished memories for sure. I hope I can buy him some fish tacos and a beer this spring. He’s good people.
